Revisiting New Orleans

When Adrienne Bossi (’10) traveled to New Orleans in 2008, the effects of Hurricane Katrina were still apparent in the area.

“It was about two-and-a-half years after the storm, and it was noticeably deserted,” says Bossi, who visited the city her first year at BU Law on a school sponsored pro bono spring break trip.

Bossi returned to New Orleans on the same pro bono trip this spring break of 2010.

“It was nice to see the changes. There were more people; kids riding around on bikes. There weren’t as many houses with the spray paint marks left by the National Guard or whoever had been searching the wreckage after the storm,” she says.

Bossi recalls driving four hours looking for open grocery stores in 2008. She and fellow spring breakers had collected money to donate food to people still stranded in temporary housing trailers, without cars or repaired public transportation.

“Some of the projects that we did my 1L year weren’t really pertinent anymore,” says Bossi. “It was nice to see that changes have been made in the last two years. They’re moving on to bigger and better issues.”

This year, Bossi worked for the Innocence Project, where she helped gather documents for an attorney misconduct study to help build new legislation.